The why, oh why, 38 stair, 290 gal build revised

[reefwithareefer]

A week passed by, before I had the time or energy to revamp some of the sump room. The wires to the apex etc were a mess.

I have an apex with 2 EB8s and a EB4. They power the Bubble king mini 180 (which is now too small for a 400 gal system, so it is for sale), three schlobster dosers from J&L, three metal halides, 4 t5s and some moonlights, the two return pumps, Tunze ATO, 2 x 300w heaters, 1/2 HP chiller,Waste water pump and a new salt water pump, a few power bars and some misc stuff.

I have the Fluval, carbon reactor, GFO reactor and 40 watt UV running off the return pump, so there are not individual pumps for each of them. The return pumps are a Pan world 250PS and a 150PS.

At this time I am dosing Calcium, magnesium and Sodium carbonate. I buy bulk schlobster from J&L and mix it up , following Randy Holmes 2 part mix. Being new to the hobby, I am not sure if this is better than buying ready made 2 part or not. I am happy how my critters are doing so, no reason to change it up yet.

I was using regulat IO salt but started using the IO reef salt when I swapped tanks. Figured it was easier to keep up parameters with a reef salt. Time will tell.





This is the refugium. I have the DT tank drain into here, the water is mechanically filtered thru a 100 micron fabric, 200 micron carbon filter, a lime filter, and some other 2/3 stage filters, then to the refugium, which is full of pods. It is then siphoned into the sump, thru 2, 1 1/2" outlets, where the skimmer and reactors are. The water goes thru another set of mechanical filters and finally back up to the DT.

I have the Apex AFS drop pellets just above the return pump inlet, where they are sucked up and pushed into the the DT, twice a day. There are 6 return nozzles/loc lines that have shut off valves on them to control the waterflow from each one. The food gets dispersed thru them all, so all the critters get a fair chance at the pellets. I feed my own mixture of frozen blood worms, mysis, clams, oysters, and plankton once a day in the morning time.
I have just about completed my top secret auto frozen fish food feeder. I have a super mini freezer that keeps a 2 weeks supply of frozen food in it and then spits out a cube once a day into a small container, where it can un thaw and be pushed out a lil at a time by the powerheads...It is about 12' x 1.5 inches x 3 inches...




This is the before pic of the sump room, not a lot different, just a little less mess of wires and pipes etc